Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1887-12-01
PART III.
PART IL
'.Miles, do you think it's truc?'

''Miles. do you think it's truc?'
What, dear?''
THAT we are really married? And
has it been only four little weeks since
you and baby Marguerite collided'
And am Mrs. Hope Stones? And is it
true that may attend upon your high
and mightiness forever and forever?
And are these furnished lodgings
really not too expensive for such work
a-day people rs we are?''
Miles smiles at the Expensive lodg-
ings." What jolly fun it all is! And
how he will enjoy taking the sweet
girl into the fairy land he has
all planned out for her in his mind.
Yet how reluctant he will be to leave
these small apartments. with their fad
ed window draperies. worn carpets
and shabbily genteel upholsterings-
for he is so happy here-here away
from his own world. with the dear lit
tie wife who has so trus.ingly placed
her small hand in his and promised to
cleave unto him while life shall last
the brave girl who fears not poverty.
nor shrinks from bearing her half of
that burden life brings to welded
workers of this world.
''Of course it's true, and of course I
can afford to rent these magnificent
rooms. l told you, dear. that I had
some money in bank-and also, of
course, there is the postman's ring-as
surely as of course l can't go down
and fetch tho mail!''
but l didn't sprain my ankle by
falling from a bicycle. so allow me to
face the grim old man of fate?'" and
down goes Hope to see it. by any
chance, a letter has come to the new
Benedict above stairs.
Yes. there is one, monsieur, blue
one, with foreign post marks all over
it," and the girl places y letter in
Niles outstretched hand. Its very
good thing you left your address.
Miles-Miles, what is it?-speakr'
I-1-can not! Hope-oh, my
poor: dear little darling Hopc-go-go
-leave-me, dear, little while-go!'
And when she had taken her white.
wondering face away, and the door
closes softly between them, he
smooths out the crumpled sheet and
reads the written lines once again.
with keener comprehension. Alas!
of what they tell to his benumbed
senses:
PARIS, May II. 49,.
MY DEAR MILES: II should confess to you
that my sudden departure for Europe was oc-
casioned by my reluctance to meet the angry
eyes OF my creditors; If should tell you that
every penny Of yours that held in trust was
worse than lost; that my own fortune was like
wise sunken in the whirlpool Of unlucky specu-
lation; that you and were beggars TO-DAY,
would you then remember your promise and
blame only yourself!
II you were less ignorant Of financial mat
tiers you would understand that there is-in
such cases as the above-no slightest hope that
any thing can be saved from the wreck and
ruin. But when such calamities overcome o man,
he need not altogether repine, so long as he has
two strong hands to battle with the world.
Such a disaster comes more heavily upon so old
a man as 1; but though hard to bear, I shall
feel cOmforted to know that a certain young
Fellow with health ana Strcngtn, ana more
than average supply Of brains, has taken heart
and started out with q determination to wiring
from the world the living it must yield him.
Begging you, the only child Of my dear old
friend and schoolmate to forgive, il you can this
| ordeal have brought upon you, am yours
regretfully, IGNATIUs SECRIsT.
How dream after dream fades rs he
reads the scrawling lines. How vision
after vision chased each other down
the long vistas where now lay buried
the fair dead hopes of lifetime! But
Hope-his Hope-lives. and she has
taken him, poor as she thinks him
taken him with a shy gladness it fills
him with gratitude to remember. She
need never know the truth-never
know the great loss that has come
upon him. He will 60 to work like a
man-surely there is plenty to do. and
it takes so little to live in this redicu-
lousy simple way. A thousand ways
and means rush in upon him even be-
fore ne has really comprehended the
extent of his loss Why, by the way,
there was q letter came ycster-